It is known to secure optical fibers to fabrics (and other panels) in such a way that the distal ends of the optical fibers are arranged in an illuminated display or pattern. Examples of such illuminated displays and the systems associated with their illumination are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,144 [Wainwright] and PCT Pub. No. WO96/37871, both having inventorship in common with the present application.
One of the motivations to create a fiber-optic illuminated display and secure it to a suitable flexible or semi-rigid material is to catch people's attention. One technique for enhancing the attention-getting characteristics of such displays is to cause different subsets of the optical fibers to be illuminated at different times, as taught by the above-referenced patent documents. Such sequencing can cause the image to appear to "bloom," "blink," or be part of an animated sequence. It is nonetheless desirable to further enhance the attention-getting characteristics of such fiber-optic illuminated displays.
Unfortunately, it is often difficult to enhance the appeal of the fiber-optics display without correspondingly increasing the complexity of the display and thereby increasing its manufacturing costs and its cost for users to acquire. More interesting, eye-catching optical fiber displays may also be unwieldy to carry or, in the case of a clothing item, unwieldy to put on, take off, or wear. For example, current techniques of changing the displayed color at a given point in a fiber-optic display generally require using multiple optical fiber bundles having separate strands terminating at each point at which a changed color is desired coupled with an illumination source of the desired color(s). Thus, to have multiple points on a display change color, each point must have as many optical fibers and color sources as the number of desired colors to be associated therewith; the cumulative effect of which is to significantly increase the required number of optical fibers and colored illumination sources.
Furthermore, the more complex the design, the more likely the display may become damaged due to wear and tear on the flexible material carrying such fiber-optic illuminated display and potential failure of the colored illumination devices. There is, thus, a need to enhance the visual interest or attention-getting characteristics of illuminated displays created from optical fibers. There is also a corresponding need for enhancements to such displays to be accomplished cost effectively. There is a still further need for attention-getting displays created from optical fibers to reduce the number of optical fibers and the complexity of the associated interconnections.